CHAPTER XXXI.
NIGHT TRAVELLING.
The enforced hastiness of Zarah's departure rendered it perhaps lesspainful than it would otherwise have been. Zarah had little time toindulge in tender regrets on leaving a spot which memory still peopledwith loved forms, giving a life to lifeless objects, making the tableat which Hadassah had sat so often, the wheel at which she had spun,the plants that she had nurtured, things too precious to be parted fromwithout a pang. There was little which Zarah could take with her in alitter; save the parchments, some articles of dress and her few jewels,all must be left behind.
Yet at this time of peril, while the wound inflicted by bereavement wasyet unhealed, Zarah felt a spring of happiness which she had believedcould never flow again, rising within her young heart. "Lycidas is anadopted son of Abraham! Lycidas, one of God's chosen people!" Thatthought sufficed to make Zarah's soft eyes bright and her step buoyant,to flood her spirit with hope and delight. Not that Zarah forgotHadassah in her new sense of happiness; on the contrary, the memory ofthe sainted dead was linked with each thought of joy, and served tomake it more holy.
"How Hadassah would have praised and blessed God for this!" reflectedZarah. "Her words were the seeds of truth which fell on the richest ofsoils, where the harvest now gladdens her child. It was she who firstsaved the precious life of my Lycidas, and then led his yet moreprecious soul to the Fount of Salvation! Had Lycidas never listened tothe voice of my mother, he had been an idolater still!"
It was with more of pleasure than of apprehension that Zarah, timid aswas her nature, anticipated the journey before her. Lycidas was to beher protector, Lycidas would be near her, his presence seemed to bringwith it safety and joy.
"And may it not be thus with all the future journey of life?" whisperedhope to the maiden. "Will Judas Maccabeus make any very strongopposition to the union of his kinswoman to a proselyte, when he findsthat her happiness is involved in it, and that Lycidas will be agallant defender of the faith which he has adopted as his own?" Zarahfelt some anxiety and doubt upon this question, but nothing approachingto despair. The maiden had little idea of the intensity of theaffection concentrated upon herself by one who was wont to restrainoutward expression of his feelings; she feared that Judas might beoffended and displeased, but never imagined that she had the power ofmaking him wretched. Was such a mighty hero, such an exalted leader,likely to care for the heart of a simple girl? Love was a weakness towhich Zarah deemed that so calm and lofty a being as Maccabeus couldscarce condescend. But is the forest oak less strong and majesticbecause spring drapes its branches with thousands of blossoms, or arethose blossoms less truly flowers because their hue is too like that ofthe foliage to strike a careless beholder? Maccabeus, with histhoughtful reserved disposition, would as little have talked of hisaffection for Zarah as he would of the pulsations of his heart; butboth were a part of his nature, a necessity of his existence.
Joab was punctual to his appointment. An hour after dark the clatterof horses' hoofs was heard on the lonely hill-path which led to thehouse of Hadassah. Anna cautiously unclosed the door, peering forthanxiously to see whether those who came were friends or foes.
"It is my Lord Lycidas!" she joyfully exclaimed, as the horseman whorode in front drew his rein at the door.
The Athenian found Zarah and her attendant ready to start, and in a fewminutes the two were seated in the horse-litter conducted by Joab, thecrimson curtains were drawn, and the travellers departed from thelonely habitation upon their perilous journey.
The weather at this advanced season was cold, almost frosty, at night;but Lycidas was glad of the cessation of the heavy rains which had, asusual, heralded the approach of winter. The night was cloudless andclear, the azure vault was spangled with stars.
After some windings amongst the hills, the party entered the longvalley of Rephaim, rich with corn-fields, vineyards, and orchards. Thecorn had long since been garnered, the grapes had been gathered, butthe fig-trees were still laden with fruit. Zarah noticed little of thescenery around her, though brilliant star-light rendered it faintlyvisible. The rough motion of the litter over rocky roads precludedconversation, even had Zarah been disposed to enter into it with herattendant. The rocking of the litter rather invited sleep, and afterthe maiden had been for about an hour and a half slowly pursuing herjourney, drowsiness was stealing over her, when she was startled by asudden shock, which, though not violent, was sufficient somewhat toalarm, and thoroughly to arouse her.
"Has anything happened?" asked the maiden, partly drawing back one ofthe crimson curtains of her litter. Lycidas had dismounted, and was ather side in a moment.
"It is a trifling matter," he said; "be not alarmed, dear lady. One ofthe thongs has given way; Joab will speedily set all to rights; I onlyregret the delay."
"Where are we now?" asked Zarah.
"Close to the village of Bethlehem," was the Athenian's reply.
"Ah! I must look upon Bethlehem again!" cried Zarah with emotion,drawing the curtain further back, so as to obtain a wider view of thedim landscape of swelling hills and soft pastures. "My loved motherHadassah was wont to bring me every year to this place; she called itsstones the Memorial of the Past, and the Cradle of the Future."
"I know that Bethlehem is a place of great historical interest,"observed Lycidas, glancing around; "it was here that David, theanointed shepherd, watched his flock, and encountered the lion and thebear. And it was here that the gentle Ruth gleaned barley amongst thereapers of Boaz." The young Greek was well pleased to show hisrecently-acquired knowledge of sacred story.
"Yes; my mother was wont to point out to me the very spots where eventstook place which must ever render them dear to the Hebrews," observedZarah. "But Hadassah always said that the chief interest of Bethlehemlies in the future rather than in the past. It is here," Zarahreverentially lowered her voice as she went on--"it is here thatMessiah the Prince shall be born, as has been revealed to us by aprophet."
"One would scarcely deem this village to be a place likely to be sohonoured," observed Lycidas.
"Ah! you remind me of what my dear mother once said in reply to wordsof mine, spoken several years ago, when I was very young," said Zarah."'It will be a long time before the Prince can come,' I observed, 'forI have looked on every side, and cannot see so much as the first stonelaid of the palace in which He will be born.'--'Think you, child,' saidHadassah, 'that a building ten thousand times more splendid than thatraised by Solomon would add a whit to His glory? The presence of theking makes the palace, though it should be but a cave. Does itincrease the value of the diamond if the earth in which it liesembedded show a few spangles of gold dust?'--I have never forgottenthat gentle reproof," continued Zarah, "and it makes me look withsomething of reverence even on such a building as that mean inn whichwe see yonder, for who can say that the Prince of Peace may not be borneven in a place so lowly!"
As Joab was still occupied in repairing the thong, Lycidas, standingbridle in hand beside Zarah's litter, went on with the conversation.
"The mind of Hadassah," he observed, "seemed especially to dwell uponhumiliation, suffering and sacrifice in connection with the mysteriousBeing for whose advent she looked--we all look. If her view becorrect, it may be possible that not only the death, but the earthlylife of the Messiah may be one long sacrifice from the cradle to thegrave."
The conversation then turned to themes less lofty, till Joab hadsucceeded in effecting the slight needful repairs. Lycidas thenremounted his horse, and the party resuming their journey, Bethlehemwas soon left behind them.
It is unnecessary to describe that night-journey, or tell how Lycidasand his companions passed the site of King Solomon's pleasure-grounds,his "gardens, and orchards and pools of water;" or how the road thenled over the succession of barren hills which extend southward as faras Hebron. Travelling was slow and tedious, the road rough, and thehorses grew weary. Lycidas was too anxious to place his charge insafety, to permit of a
halt for refreshment and rest on the way. TheGreek's uneasiness on Zarah's account was increased as, towards dawn,they met parties of peasants fleeing, as they said, from the Syrians,who, like a vast cloud of locusts, were carrying devastation throughthe land. Lycidas felt that danger was on all sides; he knew notwhether to advance or to retreat; responsibility weighed heavily uponhim, and he almost envied the stolid composure with which the hardyJoab trudged on his weary way. The Athenian would not disturb theserenity of Zarah's mind by imparting to her the anxious cares whichperplexed his own. Lycidas was touched by the implicit confidenceplaced by the gentle girl in his power to protect and guide her; and hewas thankful that while with him eye, ear, brain, were strained to theutmost to detect the most remote approach of danger, the weary Zarah inher litter was able to enjoy the refreshment of sleep.